Death Valley: The Revenge of Bloody Bill (2004) Reviews

• Worthless zombie tripe for movie masochists.

  BA_Harrison2007-01-04

  A group of teens (on their way to a debating competition) are taken hostage by a drug dealer who is looking for his partner in crime. They are forced to drive to the dilapidated ghost-town of Sunset Valley. Here they are attacked by a load of zombies, led by the evil Bloody Bill, a Confederate soldier seeking revenge for the deaths of himself and his sister. Byron Werner, the 'director' of this crap-fest, has definitely got ideas above his station. Instead of accepting that he's helming a low budget horror film, he goes all 'Tony Scott' on us and uses annoying directorial and editing techniques to excess: bleached out film stock, staccato editing, wobbly camera-work, coloured filters. This isn't art, Byron... neither is it a music video... it's schlock horror, so cut out the pretentious film-making and start off by learning how to tell a story! The plot is a weak derivative mixture of elements from H.G. Lewis' 2000 Maniacs and Romero's Night of the Living Dead, without an ounce of the charm of either of these classics. The annoying teens are portrayed by a talentless bunch of nobodies and they deliver their lines as though reading off a board. The awful script is clichéd drivel, with dreadful dialogue and absolutely no logic. Hell, it even has the teens debating with each other whilst under attack from the living dead! The 'special effects' are also lousy; the zombie makeup is extremely amateurish and the gore content is fairly low. Even the zombie extras are bad: they shuffle in a variety of unconvincing manners—some fast, some slow, and, I'm convinced, some with grins on their faces. I'm a great fan of zombie films and usually cut even the worst efforts some slack if they deliver ample blood 'n' guts, but Death Valley: The Revenge of Bloody Bill fails even with this simple task and receives the lowest possible rating from me.

• Not The Worst Zombie Movie I've Ever Seen

  KillerCadugen2004-11-30

  My review for Death Valley: The Revenge Of Bloody Bill? I made it all the way through and it didn't stink. An unusual zombie concept (an old prospector seeking revenge from beyond the grave in a western ghost town) with an engaging score (for those who like death metal), the best thing that can be said is the movie kept me interested. Also, the acting wasn't horrible. But the script was amateurish, the dialogue was weak, the logic (that is, horror movie logic) was uneven and some of the camera shots were way too gimmicky (except for the flashbacks; those were cool). There are a lot of things that could have been done - simple things - to make it a much better movie: i.e, why is it one of the students trapped in the town knows the whole legend about Bloody Bill and yet none of the others, his friends, have even heard of it at all? Also, why does the little "population" count on the town sign keep ticking up after people are killed, but does not tick down for the zombies that have been destroyed? Niggling problems, but bothersome. Still, it was not the worst zombie movie I have ever seen - that distinction goes to House of the Dead, Flesheater, Children of the Living Dead, or Zombie Lake (take your pick).

• Bloody Awful

  ghoulieguru2004-11-03

  Okay, I like zombie movies. I really do, and I'm willing to forgive a lot when it comes to low budget zombie movies. Especially ones that have their tongue firmly pressed into their cheek. Having said that, I think this may be one of the worst zombie movies to make its way onto the Blockbuster video shelves in a long time (and that's pretty bad, considering there's dreck like "Corpses Are Forever" out there). It's not worth going into the plot, because there really isn't one. It's vaguely like From Dusk Till Dawn with zombies, but without the Tarantino dialogue and Rodriguez direction. If you wind up renting this cowpie, look for the best editorial mistake ever. It's toward the middle of the movie, where the black drug dealer (stereotypes anyone?) says something like, "With all due respect, if you can point that gun somewhere else" then... watch for it, he actually mouths the other actor's line. Best part of the movie.

• Increasing the Population

  claudio_carvalho2007-09-20

  While traveling in a van with their teacher for a contest, a group of college friends are abducted in a lonely road by the criminal Earl (Gregory Bastien), who forces them to go to the ghost town of Sunset Valley to meet his partner that was transporting drugs and money of their own. Once in the town, they realize that the dwellers are zombies and their leader is the evil Bloody Bill (Jeremy Bouvet), a Confederate soldier seeking revenge for the execution of his sister that was hanged by the population that was cursed by Bloody Bill for the eternity. "Death Valley: The Revenge of Bloody Bill" could have funny lines and situations but it is too serious for a zombie movie. Further, the zombies move very fast, breaking the style originally adopted by George Romero in "Night of the Living Dead" and followed in other films of this genre. The story is predictable and the characters are forgettable, but the worst is the total lack of humor. My vote is four. Title (Brazil): "Vale da Morte: A Vingança de Bloody Bill" ("Death Valley: The Revenge of Bloody Bill")

• Oh I got some comments for this one...

  Verona2006-05-06

  Basically this whole movie can be summarized in ONE sentence: "Okay, better get going now...why aren't you leaving???????" I see others had the same "WTF's" has I had, so I don't feel so bad about this review: 1.) The whole beginning sequence was laughable, it reminded me of that Simpson's commercial "Canyonero" for their SUV. 2.)I just laughed when they had the music playing over the cop's radio talking. 3.) What is this supposed to be a very sad commentary on our State Troopers? That first of all, she wouldn't get him to get OUT of his car before showing her badge? And that one on one with absolutely nothing else around you could STILL lose your suspect. 4.) They just got Civil War re-enactors to be the extras, right? 5.) Its 28 Days Later in the Old West. 6.) The credits went for around an hour, I think. House of 1000 corpses fan much? 7.) If this IS an attempt to comment about slavery and race relations, why did they make the one "carjacker" in the entire desert a coked-up black guy with a gun? 8.) His gun changed a few times, semi, handgun, revolver... 9.) Some of the slow motion action scenes were tailor made for Conan's Walker Lever. 10.) The people turning into zombies was very reminiscent of the Return of the Living Dead movies, but without the campiness or originality. 11.) Ah yes, our new sort of hero: Coked Up Guy!!! 12.) I agree- I think Bloody Bill DOEs look like Mad Dog Tannen (Back to the Future 3), the McDonald's moon-man and William Sadler as the Grim Reaper (Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey). 13.) When "Eric" set off the grenade, why did smoke come out of only the top floor window, when it was blown off ground level? 14.) Bloody Bill apparently didn't have to do that much. He spent 95% of his time simply standing there. 15.) Gwen sensed something was wrong with the "Eric" in cowboy attire coming towards them, yet she continued to simply stand there, why? 16.) Bloody Bill can tele-transport from place to place- so why didn't he locate himself into the little tiny room they were hold up in? 17.) The end was a total ripoff of the Friday the 13th's, when someone pretended to be Mrs. Voorhees at the end to track the bad guy. Basically I found myself asking everybody Didn't JUST LEAVE!!!